Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte yesterday signed a decree to enforce a nationwide night curfew from 10pm tonight, as he tries to halt the resurgence of COVID-19, one day after Europe reported more than 11 million total cases of the novel coronavirus.
The new 10pm to 5am curfew, along with other measures, is set to last until Dec. 3, with 60 million Italians only allowed out for work or health reasons, media reports said.
Officials warn that tougher curbs could also be imposed in the hardest-hit areas under a new three-tier system that divides Italy’s 20 regions into either red, orange or green, with red being the highest risk, based on a number of factors, including rates of infection and occupancy of hospital beds.
Italy was the first European country to be hit by COVID-19, and has so far recorded more than 39,400 deaths and almost 760,000 cases.
Infections have surged in the past few weeks, particularly in the northern region of Lombardy, which includes Milan, and health experts have called for the kind of national shutdown adopted by France, Ireland and England.
However, the first lockdown was devastating for the Italian economy and the new decree was only agreed after long discussions between Conte’s government and regional leaders.
The Italian announcement came one day after Austria went into partial lockdown and Greece shut down major cities, joining Belgium, France, Germany and Ireland in reimposing curbs on people’s lives.
Poland was set to announce more restrictions yesterday, the prime minister’s chief of staff Michal Dworczyk said, as daily infections and deaths reached new records.
The country yesterday reported 24,692 COVID-19 cases and 373 deaths, and is running out of hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen and medics.
Russia announced a record daily number of infections, with 19,768 new cases adding to pressure on the government only days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were no plans for a lockdown
The WHO late on Tuesday said there had been a “further acceleration” in the speed of COVID-19’s spread in Europe over the past week, with a 46 percent increase in deaths compared with the previous week.
France, Italy and the UK had reported the highest numbers of new cases, while Andorra, the Czech Republic and Belgium reported the highest rate per capita, the WHO weekly report said.
Looking forward, countries are seeking ways to ease or avoid lockdowns.
The British government is rolling out quick-result tests for the 500,000 people of Liverpool in a pilot scheme that could be scaled up nationwide.
The tests “can be a massive and possibly decisive use to us in this country in defeating the virus,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
The city joins Slovakia, which is to test its entire population of 5.4 million people.
In Belgium, which has one of the highest number of deaths compared to its population, authorities might have shut down the country, but have nonetheless kept bookstores open for the sake of people’s mental well-being.
“In a period of anguish and uncertainty that brings us back to our own mortality, the book probably remains the best food for thought and reflection,” Brussels bookseller Marc El Khadem said.
In France, a hospitals’ federation said that the pressure was such that authorities were planning to transfer people with COVID-19 to Germany for treatment, as Belgium is already doing.
As for Germany, it should postpone non-urgent surgeries to free up beds and staff, Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine president Uwe Janssens said.
The virus has not spared the top corridors of power
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto tested positive for in Thailand, the kingdom’s health minister said yesterday, a day after Szijjarto jetted in from a one-day meeting in Phnom Penh with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Szijjarto was swiftly taken to a hospital in Bangkok after testing positive for the virus upon arrival.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is self-isolating after Danish Minister of Justice Nick Haekkerup tested positive for the virus, exposing several Cabinet members to the disease, the government said in a statement.
Additional reporting by AP and Bloomberg
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